The latest tally of Macau’s current COVID-19 outbreak has reached 533, Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long announced during yesterday evening’s regular press conference about the viral menace.

The Health Bureau also announced yesterday that four health workers and two outsourced cleaners have been infected with COVID-19 during the current outbreak, which was detected on June 18. Lo underlined during the press conference that his bureau has provisionally concluded that they were not infected while working.

In addition, the government also announced yesterday that three COVID-19 positive cases have been detected in a nursing home for senior citizens in Ha Van district, comprising two staff and a 94-year-old chronically ill woman. Ha Van is the Cantonese name for the Praia do Manduco neighbourhood in the Inner Harbour area near Barra.

According to Lo, 70 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported between 00:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, raising the outbreak tally from 414 as of Monday night to 484 as of Tuesday night.

Lo also said as of yesterday afternoon 49 more COVID-19 positive cases had been reported yesterday, raising the latest tally to 533.

Lo said that as some reporters are eager to know the latest tally during the daily press conference, which is held in the evening, he chose to announce it.

It is the first time that the current outbreak’s tally surpassed the 500-case threshold.

Consequently, Lo only announced case details about the total of the 484 that had been reported as of Tuesday night.

The current outbreak’s latest tally of 533 as of yesterday afternoon was up by 119 compared with the figure of 414, the tally as of Monday night.

According to Lo, 121 of the 484 cases have been classified as confirmed COVID-19 cases as they have come down with symptoms, while the other 363 cases have been classified as asymptomatic cases as they had not developed any symptoms. The 484 COVID-19 carriers are aged between eight months and 94.

Lo also said that 50 of the 70 new local cases reported on Tuesday were detected in the community, while the other 20 were detected among COVID-19 carriers subject to control measures such as lockdowns and quarantine.

Health Bureau official Leong Iek Hou said that her bureau has provisionally concluded that 409 of the 484 cases involved 11 clusters, while the bureau was still carrying out its epidemiological investigations into the other 75 cases. Leong noted that no new cluster was added yesterday.

652,544 tested, 48 batches of pooled samples positive as of last night

Meanwhile, a Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre statement said late last night that 132 people tested under the government’s third mandatory citywide nucleic acid testing (NAT) drive, which started at 9 a.m. on Monday and ended at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, had still not come up with a result as of last night. According to the statement, 652,124 people out of the total of the 652,544 tested under the 33-hour mass NAT drive had come up with a negative result, while 48 batches of pooled samples (six samples per pooled sample) had tested positive for COVID-19 as of last night.

According to previous government announcements, 34 batches and 72 batches of pooled samples tested positive for COVID-19 during the current outbreak’s first and second citywide NAT drives respectively. The first two mass NAT drives were carried out last week.

According to last night’s statement, a testing institution participating in the citywide NAT drive, Kuok Kim (Macau) Hygiene Examination Company Limited, had still been unable to come up with the results of 22 pooled samples, which contain 132 swabs, due to a malfunction affecting its testing equipment.

6 Health Bureau COVID-19 cases

A Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre statement yesterday announced details of the six COVID-19 carriers working for the Health Bureau. The statement did not identify their genders.

According to the statement, the six comprise a health worker tasked with taking swabs from testees at a COVID-19 NAT station, a nurse working at the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane, a nurse working for the emergency department of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, a health assistant working at the hospital, and two outsourced cleaners working at the hospital.

The six tested positive for COVID-19 in nucleic acid tests taken on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday respectively, the statement said, adding that their cases were all detected by the mandatory citywide NAT drive or the Health Bureau’s regular NAT programme for keys groups of people.

The statement said that the Health Bureau has identified 32 staff members as close contacts of the six COVID-19 carriers, who have meanwhile been transferred to quarantine.

The statement also underlined that as of yesterday afternoon no inpatients of the public hospital and the Public Health Clinical Centre receiving non-COVID-19 treatment had been infected with COVID-19.

During yesterday’s press conference, Lo said that after an assessment, his bureau has provisionally concluded that none of them had been infected with COVID-19 while working at the bureau’s facilities.

3 COVID-19 cases at nursing home in Ha Van

Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) official Choi Sio Un announced during the press conference details of the three COVID-19 cases in the nursing home for senior citizens in Ha Van district, which is run by the Macanese welfare organisation Mothers’ Work (known as Obra das Mães in Portuguese).

According to Choi, the three COVID-19 carriers comprise a 94-year-old chronically ill woman living in the nursing home, a nurse and a carer working there.

Choi said that since the implementation of a “closed-loop management” measure at the nursing home on Saturday last week, all three people had been staying there without leaving the premises.

Choi also said that from now on all staff and senior citizens living in the nursing home will undergo two nucleic acid tests every day.

The Social Welfare Bureau has said that the Obra das Mães nursing home in Ha Van district comprises 58 senior citizens and 76 staff members.

Macau’s 2^nd isolation hotel opens

Meanwhile, Lo announced during the press conference that the government has arranged for a tower of the Sheraton Grand hotel in Cotai – which consists of two towers – to be an isolation facility to receive COVID-19 patients or carriers, which came into operation yesterday.

The other tower of Sheraton Grand is being used as a COVID-19 quarantine hotel.

The new isolation facility at Sheraton Grand has 2,000 guestrooms, Lo said.

The COVID-19 isolation facility at Sheraton Grand is the second one of its kind after the England Marina Club Hotel came into operation as an isolation facility last week. The England Marina Club Hotel is a newly-completed hotel located next to the Pousada Marina Infante hotel in Cotai, which is one of the city’s quarantine hotels.

Lo said that the government has decided to activate the operation of the city’s second COVID-19 isolation hotel due to the continuous increase in the current outbreak’s tally.

Lo also noted that asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers or patients with mild symptoms will be transferred to isolation hotels, while those requiring treatment will be transferred to either the public hospital or the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane.

TCM for COVID-19 patients or carriers

Meanwhile, Lo also announced that from Friday, the government will prescribe COVID-19 patients or asymptomatic carriers staying at isolation hotels Lianhua Qingwen pills or Huoxiang Zhengqi pills, traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) used for COVID-19 treatment, if they opt for TCM medication.

According to Lo, TCM practitioners will assess the patients’ conditions via phone or video chat before deciding which of the two medicines they will be given. 

Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long (right) speaks during yesterday’s press conference about the city’s current COVID-19 outbreak, as Choi Sio Un, who heads the Social Welfare Bureau’s (IAS) Social Solidarity Department, looks on.
Photo: Tony Wong